


The Voice in His Ear

by raven_of_hydecastle



Series: Of Mist and Shadow [1]
Category: Merlin (TV)
Genre: Creepy, Fae & Fairies, Fae Magic, Gen, Kidnapping, Lost in the Woods, Oblivious Arthur Pendragon (Merlin), Poor Merlin (Merlin), Scared Merlin (Merlin), Suspense, Worried Arthur Pendragon (Merlin), at least he's pretending to be oblivious, the Erlking retelling
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-09
Updated: 2021-03-09
Packaged: 2021-03-16 02:33:44
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,516
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29943165
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/raven_of_hydecastle/pseuds/raven_of_hydecastle
Summary: Merlin said they were being followed, but there was nothing there, just the whispers of the wind. As far as Arthur was concerned, his manservant was just jumpy, as usual... No need to panic. And those shadows, they were surely just the trees, nothing more.
Series: Of Mist and Shadow [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2202159
Comments: 9
Kudos: 26





	The Voice in His Ear

“Did you hear that?” Merlin asked again, tugging on Arthur’s sleeve. 

“No, Merlin, I don’t hear a thing, it’s probably just the leaves,” he replied, scanning the forest. 

“You sure? It sounds like a voice. Somebody is talking to me,” he said, twitching nervously.

“Don’t be such a girl, Merlin,” Arthur said absently, putting a hand on his sword. “You’re imagining things.”

Whether that was true was up for debate, but Arthur didn’t want to feed Merlin’s panic. It was twilight, and they were still hopelessly lost in some dank, depressing forest. Poor Merlin was already at the end of his rope; he’d probably faint if something really  _ was _ stalking them. 

“But don’t you think it’s odd?” Merlin said, glancing behind them, “I mean, come on Arthur, these woods are _creepy_.”

He pointed to the hundreds of chestnuts, alders, and oak trees twisted together from years of cramped growth. Their branches were bare, the last of the leaves carted off by a cold, November wind, and the gnarled wood stretched out like greedy fingers.

“Nonsense,” Arthur lied, “I’m sure it’s just the season. It’ll be quite nice in the summer.”

“But it’s  _ not _ summer, it’s Samhain, and ah--there it is again!” Merlin squeaked, whirling around. He pointed at a patch of trees a little ways away and went very, very pale. 

“What is--” Arthur began.

“Shh!” he hissed, leaning forward like he was straining to hear something. 

Arthur looked for something lurking in the shadows, but it was just the branches swinging in the breeze. 

“There’s nothing there, just shadows,” he said quietly, putting a hand on Merlin’s arm. “Let’s go.”

Merlin nodded absently, but Arthur had to pull him away from the trees. Merlin glanced back anxiously as it disappeared from view. A cord of uneasiness began to tug Arthur’s insides. 

“He’s right there,” Merlin whispered, pointing back at the trees, “ _ looking  _ at us.” 

Arthur glanced back again, but there wasn’t so much as a leaf out of place. He put his arm around Merlin’s shoulders to stop the boy from stumbling and found that the manservant was shivering. 

“There’s nobody there,” he whispered. “Merlin, calm down.”

Merlin shook his head, clinging to Arthur’s arm. The king winced as his servant’s fingernails dug into his skin. 

“N-No, he’s right there, under the willow tree. I can hear him,” he said, looking unfocusedly at the ground, “inside my head...”

“You’re imagining things,” Arthur insisted, glancing worriedly at the darkening forest. “Let’s focus on getting out of here, okay? I’m sure once you’re by a warm fire you’ll realize how ridiculous you’re being.”

Merlin nodded vaguely. Arthur pulled him along, practically dragging him through the underbrush. The wind was picking up, rustling the leaves beside them like a ghost’s rattle. He shouldn’t be panicking, but part of Arthur was starting to wonder if Merlin was right. What if there was something after them, trailing just out of sight?

Arthur resisted the impulse to look behind him; he couldn’t let Merlin know he was starting to worry too.

Merlin didn’t seem to remember where he was anymore; he was looking at the rows of trees like they were people, and it may only have been Arthur’s imagination, but some of the branches looked a bit like beckoning fingers.

“Hey,” Arthur jolted him out of the stupor, “Merlin, keep walking, we need to get out of this forest by nightfall.”

Merlin looked up, bewildered. The sun was almost gone. The trees seemed to lean in closer, like a cage.

“We need to go,” Arthur repeated, shaking him slightly. 

“Just stop it,” he moaned, putting his hands over his ears.

“What?” Arthur asked, worried at how pale his servant was. “Merlin, calm down--”

“I am calm!” he yelled, pulling away from his king. “I’m the picture of rationality! Just make him stop talking to me!”

The wind tore through the trees, blowing dead leaves into their faces. Arthur suppressed a shudder as the sun vanished behind a snow cloud, and the shadows lengthened into prison bars.

“Nobody is talking to you,” he said. A sense of wrongness was overwhelming him, but there really was  _ nothing  _ there. “You’re imagining things, like always. We’re going to get out of this spooky forest and go home like nothing happened, understand?”

Merlin just shook his head and once more clutched his king’s arm like a lifeline. 

The shadows seemed to follow them through the woods. Arthur winced at the loud crunches his footsteps made as he trod through the leaves, amplified by the silence around them. Occasionally Merlin whispered something to himself, glancing pensively to his right as if somebody other than Arthur was walking beside him.

“No… don’t want to,” he heard him say, shaking his head like a frightened child.

“What is it?” he asked quietly, forgetting that Merlin was just ‘imagining’ the voice. 

“H-He wants me to…” he gulped, tightening his grip on Arthur’s arm. “Go with him…”

“Where?”

Merlin’s eyes became glassy as he whispered, “his fortress made out of mist and shadow. He’s going to take me away from you, give me a silver crown, and--and he’s never going to let me go.”

A small, cold breeze licked their faces, and Arthur swore he heard a whisper breathe sweet nothings in its echo. Merlin shuddered and wrapped his arms around himself. The king had never seen his friend so terrified before.

“Merlin…” Arthur whispered, gently leading Merlin forward, “Nobody is going to take you anywhere, okay? Let’s just focus on getting home.”

Merlin bit his lip, pale as a ghost. “H-He won’t like that. He’s not going to let me leave.”

“Well, what’s he going to do about it?” Arthur raised an eyebrow, “he’ll have to get through me first.”

Far from being comforted, Merlin only got paler.

“Oh please, you think I can’t handle a specter? I’ve got Excalibur!” He said, tapping the sword. “Now come on, I think I know where we are. It shouldn’t be long before we find the road.”

Merlin smiled weakly and nodded. They walked through the underbrush, the younger man keeping a hand on Arthur constantly. The daylight continued to wane, and Arthur saw movements in the growing shadows more and more. But each time it turned out to be something normal, like the swaying of the willow tree, or the rising fog forming shapes. 

“You feeling better?” Arthur asked when Merlin took his hand away. 

The manservant nodded. “He hasn’t said anything in a while. I think he’s lost interest.”

“Good,” Arthur said, pretending he wasn’t relieved. “See, I told you it was nothing.”

“Of course, Sire,” he said, rolling his eyes, “how silly of me.”

Arthur shook his head and continued walking forward. Merlin trailed behind him, keeping quiet.  _ Give him a moment, _ Arthur thought to reassure himself,  _ then he’ll start up his usual chatter again. _

As they walked the air chilled, and Arthur’s breath made a cloud around his head. The leaves under his feet crunched louder, frozen into stiff but yielding clumps. Arthur had drawn his cloak around himself, scanning the forest for a suitable place to set up camp when he saw him. A man a hundred yards away, dressed in a black and silver cloak. The gleam of his crown gave him away, knotted as it was around a thousand tree branches growing from his head. Even from a distance, he radiated a cold aura, and the world seemed darker around him. 

For a moment they stood, staring at one another, and then the mand raised a finger to his lips, then vanished into a blanket of shadow.

Arthur stood in shock, uncertain if it had been a trick of the light. Not one leaf had been disturbed, as if he had never even been there at all.The forest was silent now, not even the birds were chirping. Even Merlin was quiet--

Arthur spun, ears ringing. But his Manservant had vanished. 

The blood drained from Arthur’s face, and barely managed to stand. The shadows grew darker, and the forest’s emptiness was a yawning chasm. 

He had been right behind him a moment ago, but h is footprints ended a few feet away. There hadn't even been a sound.

Panic surged within him and he tore through the trees, calling Merlin’s name. He had to be here, he had to be!

As the trees spun around him, a carnival of dread, Merlin’s frightened voice played through his head over and over again. 

_ Can you hear that? _ he’d said,  _ I think someone is talking to me. He wants me to go with him. _

" _There's nothing there, just shadows...You're imagining things."_

But he hadn't, had he? Arthur sank to his knees in a frosty clearing. Night closed in on him, dimming the last rays of twilight. In the cold dark, he recalled the man in shadows once more, and the whispers on the wind that had haunted them through these woods.

_ He won’t like it; he isn’t going to let me leave. _

And he hadn’t… Merlin was gone.

And it was all Arthur's fault.

**Author's Note:**

> Hello! So, I'm finally back. No Clockwork Servant yet, but here is a fic I'm pretty happy with. I'm halfway through the sequel, which I think will be even better, so posting this is kind of getting me to amp up and finish that, haha. Let me know what you think! ;)


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